The Threat of Tharizdun

Chapter 8

24

JUL/10

-Traveling through the forest the party encountered a strange halfling named Grongern. Grongern told them a tale which had their hairs standing on edge but they dismissed him as a lunatic and brought him to Ikerniam with them as they didn’t see anything harmful about him.

-After traveling through the forest to Ikerniam, the party sought out Suicide bridge shortly after gaining some supplies. At the Suicide bridge they met a Tiefling, Ras, who informed them on what Unperan wanted them to accomplish.

-Duke Cargen was a young elf who had climbed through the ranks of the political hierarchy quickly through charm and cunning. His silver tounge made it almost child’s play and now he was one of the kings most trusted friends. Umperan and company have several contacts within Castle Ikerniam. One contact attested that Cargen was a closet worshiper of Tharizdun. After some further investigating by the other contacts this was confirmed.

-Naturally, having a Tharizdun worshiper with so much political power would be detrimental to the stopping of the cult. Placing much faith in the capabilities of the Wolverines!, Umperan asked them to remove Cargen from his power, preferably by ending his life. The Tiefling passed them a folder which held much information about Cargen, where he’s been, where he goes, his daily schedule, who his enemies are in the House of Nobles, and the like.

-With the information in hand the group went to the House of Nobles to seek out the enemeies of Cargen. They first found Kerkicko, a man who worked his way into the House. When the party had finished telling him that they needed Cargen out, Kerkicko agreed to help. He also referred them to another friend of his that shared similar views as they, Bism.

-Bism was found nearby in a tavern. Bism had good ideas with which to dislodge Cargen, he also had some information on Cargen that the party didn’t know. Cargen, according to Bism’s source, had a secret chapel underneath the castle where he worshiped his dark god. Bism, a halfling, decided they needed one last friend, Liminal, a female half-elf.

-When they reached Liminal’s home, they found she was in a meeting with other nobles. She spoke to them breifly and told them to go to the Mage’s Tower, which stood impressively nearby, to meet one last friend, Yourma, a wizard.

_The party got to the Mage’s Tower and Stanislav and Berrian went up to the top, while Dante and Budda stayed below. Once Stanislav and Berrian made it to the top they opened the door. Inside they saw a chamber filled with ten mages all preforming some kind of ritual. Suddenly, a blast of red light shone from the middle and a great rift appeared in the air. Fire spewed from the depths of the portal. Thinking quickly, Berrian teleported down one level, away from the door.

-Outside the mage’s tower Budda and Dante watched as the tower exploded. The structure of the tower began to shake and sway back and forth. Several wizards ran into the base of the tower. Beyond the walls of the Mage’s Courtyard, many people were screaming and pointing towards the tower, which suddenly stopped swaying.

-Concerned for their friends, Budda and Dante ran into the base of the tower with the other wizards. A group of them were preforming some kind of ritual to stop time within the tower itself, so that nothing continued to fall. One of the wizards spotted Budda and Dante, perceiving them adventures he asked them to go and see if there were any survivors.

-Halfway up the spiral stairs, Dante say the falling form of Stanisalv. Using rope, Dante was able to pull Stanislav into safety. Budda continued up the stairs to find Berrian and another figure in a pile of ruin. Berrian and Budda helped the figure down the steps and to safety along with Dante and Stanisalv. The wizards took the two injured men to a small medical center they had set up.

-Several hours later, Stanisalv and the other wizard came to. The other wizard was Yourma, one of the more powerful wizards of Ikerniam. The wizards, he told them, were preforming the daily ritual to keep the city warm when the rift opened. He assumed it was a portal to the Abyss, and a rather dangerous one at that. The party told him about Cargen and he agreed to do as much as he could to help.

-With Stanislav fully recovered, the party went to Liminal’s home. Bism and Kerkicko were already there. Liminal told them of a few plans they had to kill Cargen.

The first was the only one they needed. Another noble, Quinsic, was half crazy and he hated Cargen. Bism suspected that it wouldn’t take much to get him riled up in front of the castle thus creating a distraction for the guards.